Elvira Rivers
Before we bade?adieu?to audacity (the theme of our?Summer 2012 issue) and began to entertain doubt (the theme of our?Winter 2013 issue), I slipped in something that any literary review of repute requires: an advice column, complete with a fictional columnist. If you haven?t yet met, allow me to introduce Elvira Rivers, whose brief bio appears below, and promptly present the current query.
Dear Elvira,
At a recent book bash, I became increasingly incensed by a bunch of editors carrying on about bad writing.?Who do these elitists think they are, making pronouncements about what constitutes a crappy manuscript? I?m becoming convinced that all they want to do is prevent?people like me,?who won?t waste time obtaining an MFA, from joining their exclusive club. You seem like a sensible sort. Wouldn?t you agree that bad writing only lies in the eye of the beholder?
Fondly,
Fred
Dear Fred,
I am indeed sensible, so I do indeed agree. Bad writing lies in the eye of the beholder. Every beholder. Smack in the eye, making it as easy for them to spot as,?say, bad paving.
You see, while I reside in a picturesque place, the road that takes me to and fro is far from pleasing. And the imperfections there are painfully apparent to me even?though I never wasted time obtaining a civil engineering degree or even accruing the minimum qualifications required to apply for a flagger position on a respectable road crew. And they are obvious to everyone else in the environs except, apparently, the poor paver.
What often jumps out first in both bad writing and paving is a lack of proper preparation. If a surface?is cracked or offers inadequate structural support and our writer refuses to lift a finger (or move a mouse) to correct this, defects will inevitably emerge through the best-constructed overlay and consequent deformations can cause catastrophic failure.
If said writer isn?t ready in terms of craft, obtaining an MFA couldn?t hurt; however, if the shortfall concerns subject matter, graduate school rarely helps. An?MFA hailing from, say,?Chappaqua?who decides to write stories about, say,?meth labs in rural Michigan is at a distinct disadvantage to, say,?Bonnie Jo Campbell, the author of the award-winning American Salvage,?who?s lived in the Kalamazoo?area all her life. (And, incidentally, has an MFA in creative writing, as well as a BA in philosophy and an MA in mathematics.)
And, while some would say that writing only about what one knows would merely result in a surfeit of stories about English professors seducing MFA students, those someones rarely insist that writers of such limited experience are?as assiduous in filling the cracks in their knowledge?as, say,?Ian McEwan, who?at the height of his career?spent?two entire years?as a matter of course?diligently work-shadowing a neurosurgeon before starting his?critically acclaimed novel?Saturday. (And, yes, he also has the equivalent of an MFA.)
Bad writings is as easy to spot as bad paving and bad driving on Oella Avenue (Photo: Ilse Munro)
Now, put a bad driver on that precarious pavement and there?s sure to be some serious trouble. You see, my particular road is narrow, sometimes turning into a single lane, with steep climbs and descents and sudden sharp turns. Inexperienced or impaired drivers readily put everything in their path in peril, as do those overconfident ones who show no consideration for objects or persons.
I regularly see the former on my street, their shaky hands at the wheel, wandering across lanes, running out of road and rolling down embankments. The latter I remember from my Boston and Cambridge days, their tall trucks stuck under overpasses on Storrow and Memorial Drives?along the Charles River, where large signs say, ?CLEARANCE 11FT 0IN.? They?re the same ones that I now observe attempting impossible turns into access roads and ending up wedged between street signs and utility poles, their goods, alas, undelivered.
In bad writing, it?s equally easy to see when an author is out of control. Some use the excuse of automatic writing, citing Jack Kerouac?s notion of ?first thought, best thought? and his refusal to revise. (And add that Kerouac was a college dropout.) But a closer look at good writers shows, more often than not, that?s a carefully crafted illusion. In her memoir, Joyce Johnson?who definitely did know Jack?revealed that he revised regularly and rigorously. Which is why his seminal novel On the Road?didn?t end up in a ditch.
Similarly, it?s hard to miss the sort of bad writing that occurs when an over-confidant author under-delivers, almost by design. I?m not referring so much to brash early efforts such as?A Clockwork Orange?that?acclaimed authors later repudiate?as to works penned at any point in a career that show little regard for readers because, one can only assume, such authors feel that they are so patently brilliant that they deserve a pass.?Consider McEwan, whom I normally admire. With?Sweet Tooth, he correctly calculated that the clumsy contrivances used in lieu of more potent prose wouldn?t be called out by more than one or so critics the way that they would?ve been were he someone of lesser repute.
Bear in mind that at the beginning of each work?no matter how?outr??the author enters into a contract with the reader?to render certain goods, the literary equivalent of kitchen cabinets.?When that author has the arrogance?to violate that agreement through artifices such as dei ex machina, contrived epiphanies?or trick endings, the reader has the right to feel cheated. Not that I don?t delight in surprises. But they only constitute good writing when, as occurs with minor masterpieces such as George Saunders???Puppy? and?Joshua Ferris?s??The Dinner Party,??the reader is complicit every single step of the way.
Speaking of good writing, I maintain that the transportation analogy also works there. It?s as hard to miss as, say, trains rumbling along the track across the river, parallel to my ruined road. In a Poets & Writers piece, a literary agent seconds what another has put in his Publishers Marketplace profile: what he looks for is a book that makes him miss his train stop. (Actually, it?s ?subway stop,? but that?s more or less along the same lines.)
Sincerely yours,
Elvira
PS I could?ve?added a spot of bad weather, which typically comes from getting too much of an otherwise good thing, to the above mix, but then it would?ve become necessary to address over-writing, which would?ve been a bit excessive here. Fortunately, that and other cases are covered by the likes of David Sedaris, George Saunders and Margaret Atwood in the video?Bad Writing, which?can be purchased for a pittance on Amazon.
About Elvira
Elvira Rivers,?une femme d?un certain age, was born on a certain date in a certain place. Her father was the storied Tony Thames-Avon, a British actor and playwright, her mother the celebrated Latvian beauty Dai?a Daugava-Gauja. When?Thames-Avon-Daugava-Gauja met Percy Pocomoke-Patuxent, she made surname consolidation a condition of marriage.?The Rivers were inseparable until their divorce two years later.
Elvira went on to cure the common cold, design couturier gowns and write The Great Latvian Novel, while Percy vacillated between painting and poetry, then poetry and prose. He eventually acquired a Harvard MBA and left to run the?London office of the venerable Boston investment bank Duck & Cover. Back in the USA, he?was convicted on 14 counts of fraud and conspiracy and is currently serving an 11-year sentence.
To encourage her former husband to return to the literature and art he so loved once, Elvira sent him frequent letters.?After finding herself uncharacteristically incapable of making ends meet?her nest egg had suffered substantial cracks during?the 2008 crash?she approached?Little Patuxent Review?about writing a column helping creative types such as Percy?better navigate life?s unruly waters. She has been with us ever since.
Note: Elvira is not related to the late mother of our online editor even thought her first name and the middle name of that witty woman are identical. She is also not connected to?the winking woman shot by?Ewing Galloway, though the resemblance is remarkable.
Source: http://littlepatuxentreview.org/2013/02/08/dear-elvira-bad-writing-and-every-beholders-eye/
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